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September 3, 1853.] THE LEADER, 859
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SPANISH DRAMAS, OLD AND NEW". Six Dramas...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Popular, Geology. Popular Physical Geolo...
wave-like form in the sand is not a ripple mark , but a ripple ; if it is the mark of any thing it is a ' current mark / and as such . I have always preferred to speak of it . Just as a current in the air produces a ripple in the surface of the water below it , g 0 a current in the water produces a ripple in the sand below it . It makes no difference indeed whether the sand be acted upon by air or water . Whenever the circumstances are favourable , wind will cause a , ripple ( or current-mark ) on the surface of blown sand , as I observed frequently under very favourable circumstances at Sandy Cape in Australia , and as has been observed by Sir Charles Lyell near Calais . { Lyell ' s Elements , p . 20 , 4 th edition . ) In each case the moving fluid propels the grains of sand forward , piling them up into ridges , which are perpetually advancing by the rolling of particles over the crest of each ridge into the hollow beyond , where they are for a time sheltered from the current , but soon buried under the advancing ridge , to be again torn up and rolled onward perhaps as their site becomes exposed to the force of the stream .
" The ripple or ' current mark * on the surface of a bed therefore is no trustworthy guide as to the depth at which the bed was formed , as has sometimes been supposed , for as the water is rippled by the wind or current of air at the bottom of the atmosphere , so may mud or sand be rippled at the bottom of the sea by the current of the water , whatever he its depth , provided the force of that current be sufficient to overcome the pressure of its weight to the necessaiy extent , and gently propel forward the sand or silt that lies below it . " Or this : — STETJCTUEE AND FORMATION OF AQUEOUS BOCKS . "A group or series of beds , which in one place consists entirely of one set ; of materials , may in another consist of an entirely different set .
" For example , a series of beds of almost pure limestone , say 800 or 1000 feet in thickness , may , by the gradual interposition of shale and sandstone and their increase in thickness , and the simultaneous thinning of the limestone beds , pass—in the course , say , of fifty miles—into a group of shales and sandstones , with few or no calcareous beds . " Similarly , a great group of beds , in one place consisting of sandstones , marls , and conglomerates , in another place may be composed entirely of clay-slate and limestone . "Again , a set of bads , in one part of the world composed entirely of soft white chalk , in another may be entirely hard black marble , and in a third may be clay-slate and sandstone .
" These may seem to be rather dry and barren statements ; they are not entirely so . They have an interpretation : a story , if only a fragmentary one , may be deduced from them . We saw that from the structure of the aqueous rocks we could reason back to the nature and to the varied play of the agencies that produced them . The grouping of these rocks gives us similar information . " Take the case of the two beds of limestone or sandstone mentioned at p . 56 . We learn that , after the first was deposited , there was a very considerable interval before the formation of the second , although when we first found them resting one on the other , there wasjiothing to tell us of that interval . The first-formed
or lowest bed rested at the bottom of the water , and into that water was swept on one side a quantity of silt , mud , and sand , that was carried a certain distance , and then fell to the bottom ; some of it , especially of its finer portion , was carried further than the other , but none of it reached so far as the place where we first found the beds . At that place , during the whole of that interval , the water remained unsullied with mechanical detritus , and not sufficiently impregnated with mineral matter to cause a deposition to take place . After that interval , perhaps after a still longer one , another deposition took place , and the upper bed was formed , resting in one part directly on the 'lowest , and in the other , on the interposed materials-.
" In the case of great groups of rocks changing entirely their mineral character , wo learn , among other things , that at the time those groups were deposited , Nature acted much as she now does ; that the surface of our globe was not one uniform sea , but broken by land and water ; and that the refuse nnd detritus washed from the land into the water , was of as var ious a chnracter as it is now . While in some wide-sprea d and tranquil seas chemical precipitations were taking place , in other parts of the sa me seas mechanicall y suspended nnd transported materials were being woujjht in , just as we know must now bo taking place in our present seas . V Y 1 . ill [\ I . I 111 Q Oil Altrtl rlinr T'lirt * * r \ n /\ sw «¦** ^» < " *** » « % » -4- - £ Ti- » >• - « . rt * 1 l- » ^^ ~> w * — » , «_ . _ .. ^ 4 . ~ _ * «^ *¦* M *» We nro thus shown that these rocks not formed b ysterious
« _ , ~ wero y any m or inscrutable agency , acting by means or on a plan which we cannot discover or cannot understand , and are therefore left to guess at or conjecture about ; but by > e simple action of thoso natural agencies which surround us continually on every 81 nru ° l to om" observation in our daily walks . " lo the unobservant the world is a riddle , a heap of wonders , a conjuror ' s > ° x ; to the observant , an admirable and beautiful piece of mechanism , for ever » work for his instruction and delight ; the agencies nnd the action for ever "" Wing , l , ij 0 tne Ktvains of a piece of music or the harmony of a . poem , but all : » nl ) imng to one end , all obeying the impulse of one law , all tending to one ferent system of order and arrangement . " Atmin : —
HOW WKRI 5 MINKKAL KOCJv'fl FUSED F uns - lUestl 0 n mfty llOro 1 ) 0 nsllral , perhaps , which we ought to endeavour to WhT- ' ! i UU (! l y > Hmvcaino minerals and rocks in a state of fusion ? in other words , to h \ CIM 1510 ortuoori S »» ofa h Ur fO 1 > lh 11 <) 0 < Ih oi uielfc (>< 1 atom , to piles up great mountain-masses « ontuient "" ' ^ < l"S < "" d r ° fW 8 ° <> f itS Hall ' otv-Valvo > ' Illul to 'slmla' and litt " 1 » wliol ° « , J . , " ° . <; cl »« Ptcr we briefl y deseribed the extent , to which volcanoes were
Prodi V > V - ° gl ° ' nntl tho B" »» Iai % » « o < - t <> « ' » y identity , of their effects and trnni > "* ' llltJtlltlos - I (> wo worc to cxamiiio the other igneous rocks , the QnuiiV " - a ffnuiiti <" ' H » oiild find an equal identity throughout tho globe . « t tin C ' Branito ( Hl H ° ' thro"Kllo " AuHtrnlin , in tho Indian Archipelago . Tho ««» 1 1 , 11 « I HU Ol K rfionstono >»» dbiiHult , foldspiu-fcrapwid porphyry ; they occur Whcthe " ° Wlm " K t ! ll 0 ral < - »« " * n « t « ri « twsa over the wholo globe . This heal , then , »> nnifi . Jf ?• "" 01 lfc <) r " «» tl « srn tiim-H , whether in ita Hiipernoial or most deep-fieatcd « flw ts rn , ° " ' lmH bcon « v « rywliero tho sumo , and ovorywhoro produced tho hiuuo PnrViiiio i 8 i Htttt < Jmcilfc Rt ° ° P mslnile « *!»« possibility of its arising from any 'A ' wo i » mn T T ° ' i <; mmb lm do » l' - «« at « l and common to tho wholo globe . ( iJiotliwiH of accounting for it aro alono open to uh : — » oamtt | n ? f ° - l TCH ° f th 0 eurthB nu < 1 ulkllli ° « > H « ch n » silicon , nluminium , > Ikkwbmuui , & c , &<; ., when oxygon ( whether ib bo dorivod from air or water )
gams access to them at a pi'oper temperature , unite with it so fiercely , as to produce vivid combustion and generate great heat . It is supposed therefore that these metallic bases exist in large quantities in the interior of the globe , and that they are continually combining with oxygen somewhere or other , and this combustion taking place on a grand scale ., This hypothesis is one that is sufficient to account for the facts of individual cases , and may perhaps be sd modified as-to account for the similarity in the igneous rocks over the whole globe . -Objections that were raised to it on purely chemical grounds , have since been shown to be untenable . " The other supposition is that the earth was originally , or at one period of its history , entirely in a fluid state , a globe of molten matter ; that a cooled crust then formed on it , which would at first be formed entirely of igneous rocks ; that after water had been formed and had existed for some time on it , the aqueous rocks were commenced , but that the molten matter of the interior occasionally forces its way to the surface , either along great cracks or at weak spots , and that , in its uneasy throes and pulsations , it has formerly , and still does occasionally , squeeze or inject yet molten matter into parts of the cooled external crust .
" A modification of the latter hypothesis is supported by somo ( partly on astronomical grounds and considerations of general physics ) , namely that whether the earth was ever entirely fluid or not , its interior is not now so , but that great subterranean lakes of molten matter exist in the interior at no great comparative depth in the earth , and not sufficiently extensive to at all resemble a central fluid nucleus . " Under the latter hypothesis or its modifications , the essential unity of the igneous rocks is fully allowed for and accounted for . We have seen in this chapter how intimately connected they all are , how they graduate and pass into each other ,
how even they are all composed of the same substance—Silica—for at least half their mass , and how few are the other ingredients essential to their existence . The hypothesis of original fluidity accounts in the fullest way for their sameness in all parts of the globe ; and for the similarity of the composition of even their most striking varieties . Accepting it , we should view them all as springing from the same mass of matter , their varieties resulting either from substances added to their composition in their passage towards" the surface , from the re-arrangement of their constituents in various parts , according to accidents not known to us , or from the different conditions to which they have been subjected , as to pressure , rate of cooling , or subsequent alteration .
" It has been well remarked by Professor John Phillips , that the two hypotheses are not incompatible , and may be both entertained and united . " In conclusion it should be observed that Mr . Jukes confines himself to Physical Geology , leaving- Palaeontology to bo treated by another hand . He has done wisely in thus limiting his subject ; wisely , because Physical Geology is the subject peculiarly his own , and because , from an occasional glimpse we get , we suspect him of profoundly erroneous views with respect to the great biological question of the successive and progressive forms of life in anterior epochs . Thus , at p . 204 he says : — " It has been proposed to cut off" tho Cambrian rocks , considered as marked by the absence of all organic remains , from tho resb of the Paleozoic rocks , and to form a separate class , called Azoic ( or destitute of animals ) , for all the rocks t > elow those of the Silurian system . This appears to me to be premature , to say the least of it . It rests on the assumption , not only that no fossils have been found in rocks below the Silurian , but that no animals existed before the lowest Silurian rocks were deposited . It would suppose Lingulse and Trilobites to
be the first of all ex'eated beings—a hypothesis that , to say the least of it , seems a very singular one , and for which it is difficult even to imagine any reason , fitness , or congruity with what we know of the laws and order of Nature . ' De non apparentibus et do non existentibus eadem cst ratio / 13 doubtless a sound legal maxim , but in science it only holds good as forbidding any reasoning at all about tho things in question : to argue that things do not exist because wo cannot find any traces or remains of them , is to estimate by the deficiencies of our own powers and faculties the omnipotence and superabundance of Nature . So little credit do I personally attach ( if I may bo allowed to speak of myself ) to negative evidence in the matter of organic remains , that , to take up extreme ground at once , I hold mysolf perfectly prepared , if I live long enough , to hear of tho discovery of tho Silurian Mammalia , and of course of all those of tho more recent periods . I am therefore individually quite prepared to hear sonietimo of tho discovery of fossils older than Silurian forms , but certainly not at all inclined to amuso myself and others by endeavouring to prophesy what they will bo like . "
In tho first place , as a matter of logic , if it be not legitimate to argue from the absenco of any remains , that therefore no animals existed , surely the converse is not a more legitimate argument P If I am far from justified in concluding there wero no animals because I can find no traces tof them , surely you are not justified to concluding there were animals because we can find no traces P In tho second placo Mr . Julccs ' s declaration of being prepared to hear of Silurian mammalia , implies a wilful disregard of positive evidence- in favour of mere speculation !
September 3, 1853.] The Leader, 859
September 3 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 859
Spanish Dramas, Old And New". Six Dramas...
SPANISH DRAMAS , OLD AND NEW " . Six Dramas of C ! alder on . Freely Translated by Edward Fifczgerald . Pinkorin / j . Tho JPfoiver of a Dai / . A Prninn . Translated from tho Spanish of IDon Fninoiuro Oninprodon . IJj William Uiddulph Parker . J . W . Parkor uiul Hon . A not uninstructivc contrast may evolve itself from the study of theno two small volumes . Caldoron is tho greatest name in the amuilH 0 HI 10 ancient Spanish drama , and Camprodon has a namo in his own country , though probably not moro than a hundred Englishmen have any acquaintance with it . Mr . Parker during his residence in Spain . seems to luivo caught tho national enqoucment . . 11 e Bays : —
" On my return to lOngland , after houio yearn absence in Spain , I was surprised by hearing it . frequently , asserted , that both the national drama and poetry of that country woro at tho lowest possible ebb . Now , as I Jnul boon a constant attendant at tho Spanish theatro , and particularly interested by tho piny . ) of Zorillii , (' mnprodon , Itubi , Breton do lo , s Herreros , and other authors , 1 wns most anxious to refute this , in my opinion , utuUiKorvcd calumny . " I therefore selected ami translated thrco phiyfl : Tho Flower of a Bay , by Cnniprodon ; Traitor , Martyr , and Unshriven , the IhhI . and , I think , tho best dramatical production of Zorillii ; and tho Tampnsls of the Heart , by Jtubi ; considering them fair HpccinictiH of tho niodorn Spaninh drama . " On aonding them , however , to a publisher , I whh informed , to my griovoufl difnppoinhnont , that in Jus opinion , not fifty copies would bo sold ; that English people
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 3, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03091853/page/19/
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